Britta Riley

Britta Riley’s work plays with current structures for innovation in our culture and celebrates the wisdom of ordinary people. By means of a process she calls R&D-I-Y (research and develop it yourself), she applies a pedestrian mentality to intractable global issues to surprising effect. The resultant artifacts conjure lifestyles of a future sustainable society that are startlingly within reach. She brings the proposals to the public for further innovation thereby inviting ordinary people to participate in solving big environmental problems immediately through mass collaboration. Her DrinkPeeDrinkPeeDrinkPee project, in collaboration with Rebecca Bray, helped people turn their pee into fertilizer for their houseplants through kits, events, and an installation. Her current project, Windowfarms.org, helps New Yorkers grow food in their apartments year-round by means of hydroponic window curtains. Her projects have been featured as part of MoMA’s Earth Day, the Venice Biennale 2008, Ars Electronica 2009 in Linz, on the Discovery Channel, Artnews, Art in America, We-Make-Money-Not-Art, Domus (Italy), and Grist.com. She is a graduate of Tisch’s Interactive Telecommunication Program at NYU and St. John’s College’s Great Books Program.

Eyebeam Yearbooks

Tagged with: Britta Riley

Summer School @ NightA series of free evening lectures open to the public led by hosts from Eyebeam’s Summer School program and friends of Eyebeam. No registration necessary.
All events were on Thursdays, from 6:30–8:30PM at Eyebeam, 540 W. 21st St., NYC.
SCHEDULE:Thurs., July 2, 6:30–8:30PM | WATCH VIDEOA mind shredding evening with the College of Tactical Culture, hosted by Eyebeam senior fellow Steve Lambert and Eyebeam research associate Stephen Duncombe. Lambert and Duncombe discussed tools and techniques in creative activism and the work happening at their new College.

We are creating several different designs for suspended, hydroponic, modular, low-energy, high-yield light-augmented window farms using low-impact or recycled local materials. These prototype window farms, to be located in high-profile windows throughout the city, are intended to inspire other New Yorkers to design and implement their own window farms. Signs in the windowfarms will challenge New Yorker to create their own and direct them to a website where we can all share photos, plans, designs, and information. Together, we will derive viable methods for growing food under the local conditions of our own homes in a way that is efficient enough for New Yorkers' lives.